TRUMP MANAGEMENT

One of the most important things  in Bridge is  “ how one handles the trumps while trying to score the contract? ” when final contract is of course not the No-Trump contract. A general belief is “ scoring a suit contract is  easier than scoring the No-Trump contract.” This  may be true because here you have to be in control of  only one suit i.e. trump suit, however if the trumps are not managed effectively  the suit contracts are not easy to score  and one may loose .

True it is that much depends on the opening lead. At times some contracts get scored just because of favorable lead while on some other occasions they get defeated as a result of accurate killing lead . Once the opponent leads,there are many hands which start looking  simple and a smooth road to victory is visible however one must not forget that when the road is smooth it also becomes slippery ! Analysis of several deals reveal that generally on the very first trick declarer commits the mistake on most occasions . This is because of lack of planning or improper planning. Trump management is an integral part of this planning and declarer has to do it in various situations. When dummy’s cards are revealed ,the  first thing declarer counts is how many trumps are missing and what to do about them. The Declarer faces one of the following situations if the partnership’s bidding  was as per their agreed  system.

Situation 1     5 trumps are missing

Situation 2     4 trumps are missing

Situation 3    Less than 4 trumps are missing

In a very rare situation particularly in a Part game contract partnership may discover that 6 trumps are missing  . If  more than 6 trumps are missing partnership must seriously address the issue of their  bidding conventions instead blaming either their luck or their partners . It is assumed that partnership will land in trump contract when together they have at least 8 trumps or at least 7 trumps while  playing part game. If opponents have more trumps then the contract will most likely get defeated not because of improper trump management but because of incorrect bidding of the partnership.

Like an opening lead the success of scoring contract also  depends on the distribution of missing trumps in opponents’ hands and position of the missing honor or honors (king or queen in particular and in some cases Jack and ten.)The skill of the declarer is how correctly he can guess the situation and handles his trump suit.

When the bridge is taught to a beginner he / she  is advised that  “whenever you are playing a suit contract ,you must remove trumps in the opponents’ hands. “and hence play at least two rounds of trump suit  immediately after winning the lead. They are told that not removing opponents’ trumps is like playing with the fire. In most deals ,playing as per  ‘this  advice’ works and over a period of time one develops the habit of drawing the trumps mechanically and ignores  the fact that when opponents’ trumps are removed dummy’s trumps also get removed . Sometime it is critical to score one or two tricks in dummy by using its trumps and in those situations drawing all the trumps from opponents’ hands should   be deferred till dummy’s trumps are effectively used . The advice given to a beginner is not bad and is basic but in bridge every deal is different and some  more techniques are more useful. If you have to win you have to learn how and when to play with fire ! The  discussion below will be  of use  to many inexperienced  bridge players and may be interesting even to those who have long experience of playing this ever absorbing game .

     5 Trumps are missing  

Missing trumps can have  5-0 ,4-1  or 3-2 distribution in the opponents’ hands. If the missing trumps distribution is 5-0 the failure to win  the contract can be attributed to bad luck and most people will agree to your “bad Luck reason “for your defeat  and even sympathies !  If the distribution is 4-1 and if 1 honor is missing you are most likely going to loose at least 1 trump trick unless missing honor is a singleton or an opponent holding 4 trumps is on your right side . In nearly 52% of the cases you will face the situation that trumps division is 3-2 .  

The most common dilemma  is  what to do with the missing master trump. If after two rounds of drawing trumps queen is missing it is a master trump in opponent’s hand. ( a sole winning trump with opponent is a master trump) You are anyway going to loose the trick to  the master trump but in the process what should one do ?

 Is it necessary for you to loose your 2 trumps ?(yours and dummy’s)  OR   Is it   better to allow the master trump  to stay and switch to other suit ? There is no definite answer to this .Some time, when you have sure winners in other  side suit it is better to surrender to master trump  while in some other situations where you can get a ruff in the dummy it is  useful to allow master trump to stay .I have seen experts use the master trump to their advantage and effectively  “end play “their opponent on many occasions rather than meekly surrendering .
Other observation is  , there is tendency  to draw the trumps by attempting a finesse immediately after winning an opening lead . It is not a bad idea to try to trap the missing queen if you have A K and Jack  but before employing the finesse think about the consequences of loosing the finesse to queen. Your left hand opponent might  have  led singleton suit and waiting for an opportunity to ruff. When you loose finesse to queen with the right hand side opponent he will happily return the lead  and you will land up loosing an extra trump trick. Also  a possibility of loosing finesse to a doubleton queen cannot be ruled out ! So employ your finesse after carefully analyzing the situation. Same is true while making an attempt to trap the missing  king .

Finesses have only 50% chance of success. Unless you have some additional information during bidding which indicate that you are likely to succeed it is better to probe an alternate line of play. Experts  employ  finesse either when there is no way to succeed or unless they are absolutely sure of winning it. Taking finesse at wrong time  is the common error many people  commit  time and again  and upon failure they  curse their

 luck ……… It is said that luck favors the braves  but luck also favors intelligence  and sheer dependence on luck is no good bridge!

·         4  Trumps missing

Life is comparatively cool when you discover that only 4 trumps are missing and the good news is the chance of their even distribution in opponents’ hands is quite high . Before assuming that, think about what will happen if trumps are  divided 3-1 and is there any winning line  when trumps are divided three-one. When only 4 trumps are missing there is  tendency to try to score an over trick and it is observed that in an attempt to do so sometime the contract is lost. Always  remember that primary objective of any declarer must be to win the contract and scoring an over trick must be the secondary objective .Again if trumps are divided 4-0 you can blame your luck though there are more chances of scoring the contract when 4 trumps are with one opponent  compared to when 5 trumps are  with one opponent and so chances  of finding a winning line are  also more. So never give up !

A beginner gets excited in ruffling opponents‘ winners and many times unnecessarily ruff in the close hand .  Ruffing one suit in hand and another suit in dummy is called cross ruffing . Many players who are not beginners   get fascinated  in employing cross ruffing and get  pleasure and sometime miss the correct winning line  while  ruffing. Normally  it is  meaningful to ruff in the hand which has lesser number of  trumps..  Ruffing in the hand which has more number of trumps does not always give an extra trick . In fact  in some situations It is  not necessary to ruff at all… particularly when you see the possibility of over ruff. Instead  it is useful to throw a sure  loser and allow opponents to win .This can eventually develop  an opportunity to ruff in other suit in which opponent cannot  over ruff.

Unless one is able to get many ruffs in the hand which has originally more number of trumps there is  no real advantage in ruffing. If the hand with lesser number of trumps eventually can become hand with more trumps there is advantage. When less than 4 trumps are missing it is possible that ruffing in the hand which has more trumps can give you the winning line.   Such type of trump management is called reversal of dummy and is a good technique to score the contract. The trouble is it is not an easy task to identify such situation.

There are no fixed solutions to the trump management involving issues like

    a)  When to draw some or all of the opponents’ trumps ?

    b)    Is it necessary to ruff or there is possibility of throwing a loser and allow opponents to win ?

   c )   How to prevent opponents from winning tricks with ruffs ?

   d )  When to try to ruff  in the dummy and which trump to be used for ruffing.?

   e) How to prevent promotion of the trump with opponent?

   f )  When  to create an entry in dummy by ruffing with higher trump in hand ?

In the Nut shell there are no fixed rules for managing the trumps. Perhaps bridge would not have become so absorbing if there were fixed rules which will work with certainty. Every deal is a fresh deal and can pose a challenge to you . Trump management is a critical and a very important  skill  one has to acquire . While managing the trumps ,which technique should be employed in a given deal is a matter of  judgment and intelligence .Losers blame their luck ….winners have better judgment and intelligence .

People keep mismanaging the trumps   even after playing for over 30 or 40  years !. So don’t get disturbed if you commit an error….. there is always a next time !

An interesting real life deal below demonstrates how  trump management is done .Try to score 6 Spades when west leads Diamond king. Consider  south can see all 52 cards( double dummy game)

                                       S   A K  8

                                       H  K Q J 10 7 6

                                       D  J 3

                                       C    5 2

S    void                          NORTH             S 7 6 5 4

H    5 4 2           WEST                  EAST H  9 8 3                                                                  

D  K Q 10 9 8                                           D 7 6 5 4

C  K 10 7 4 3                 SOUTH              C  Q 6        

                          S   Q J 10 9 3 2

                          H  A                                 

                          D  A 2

                          C  A J 9 8

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